Archives for February 14, 2021
Canada Covid stats – weekend
by Curtis Zutz
Watch out for the bear! – with permission from Shannon Ford
To see more go to Shannon Ford
Update – Winning Kraft Hockeyville could help save our arena
It is there folks – keep trying !!!!!!
Oliver friends! Can you contribute two minutes of help that could make a humungous difference for our little town?
THE PROBLEM:
The Oliver & District Arena is on its last legs. The brine lines under the floor that keep our ice frozen have been breaking a few at a time for the past five years. If the lines fail, the arena will need to be shuttered – possibly forever – since the cost of immediate repairs may be too big a burden for our little town to carry.
HOPEFULLY PART OF THE SOLUTION:
Each year, the Kraft Hockeyville contest awards $250,000 of arena upgrades to one lucky Canadian town. We want Oliver to be the Kraft Hockeyville winner this year!
HERE’S HOW:
Between now and Feb 14th, we need Oliver to rally around nominating the Oliver & District Arena. It’s so simple and quick! It’s simple and quick: visit
www.krafthockeyville.ca
and click on ‘find my arena’. Then, follow the links to show your support for the Oliver & District Kraft Hockeyville nomination.
Here’s what your efforts will earn towards our application:
Submit your own story about why our arena is great: +10 pts
Share on Twitter using the ‘share’ button: +5 pts
Add photos or videos of our arena: +3 pts each
Add a note to someone else’s story or photo: +1 pt
Add an emoji to someone’s story or photo: +1 pt
YOUR HELP MATTERS:
Our arena is more than a building: it’s where community is built. For 51 years, thousands of kids have strapped on skates, stepped onto our ice, and learned to love the game because of the Oliver & District Arena. If we all invest just a couple minutes to rally around Oliver’s Kraft Hockeyville application, we have the chance of earning dollars towards keeping our well-loved arena open. Every dollar raised towards the necessary repairs brings the dream of having the Oliver & District Arena stay open for decades to come closer to reality.
Demand limited for ” warming centres “
ODN contacted Greg Thorp who represents two churches, Osoyoos and Oliver – 7th Day Adventists
Only 1 to 2 persons per church required help and assistance each night Wednesday to Friday.
Thorp says the community has been outstanding in providing food, refreshments, pillows, and a warm place to say overnight in this cold winter.
Dispatches
Friday 8:35 pm
Chimney fire at one storey home near Mountainview Street and Mountainview Court. Fire seemed to flare at the top of the structure with nothing showing in the fire box below. Smoke bombs and spray water put out the fire with firefighters on the roof.
Sunday – 1:37 am
Report of a small smouldering fire at or near a residence – close to Sandpoint and McKinney Rd.
Oliver Fire Department spent about an hour ensuring the fire was out and residents safe.
Letter to the editor
Hello, my name is Debra Nehring. I live here in Oliver, BC. I’m sharing with you an email I sent to Bonnie Henry, Adrian Dix , and Roly Russell.
Good day, I’m writing to tell you my parents’ personal story as it relates to the ridiculous, unnecessary, and downright cruel lockdowns that have been pushed by the government of BC.
My mother has been in a long term care facility since last January. My father was unable to care for her at home any longer, as her dementia and frequent falls made it unsafe for her to be at home. My mother will be 90 in August, and my father was 93 last Monday. At first, my family was able to visit her daily. Then in March when your government decided to lock these care homes down, he was the only one allowed to see her, and just three times a week. This was a devastating blow not only to my parents but also to myself and my family as we could see her lack of stimulation was causing her to sink deeper into her dementia.
This situation continued until only one visit per week was allowed by one family member.
On Boxing Day my father collapsed in his home and was taken by ambulance to Penticton hospital where he was diagnosed with advanced glioblastoma, after stroking because of the pressure in his brain. Because he was palliative we had hoped he would be able to live out his last days with my mother in the care facility she was locked up in. The care facility agreed they should be together, and he was to be transferred there on January 5. About a half hour prior to his transfer from hospital, your inhumane mandate was passed down and he couldn’t enter the care home. He was sent instead to another care home to die. He had to be locked up in his room for 14 days, no visitors at all. In spite of the size of the tumour in his brain he was still very much cognitive of the harshness and cruelty of this quarantine imposed upon him. He became so angry and agitated that he was banging on the walls with his fists. He had to be sedated in order to keep himself from injury. Just one week after he was allowed out of his room, he seizured 4 times in a short period. He didn’t regain consciousness and died last Monday on his 93rd birthday. My parents were married 70 years last September. All my dad wanted was to be with his beloved wife before he died.
Your heartless mandates contributed to both my father’s death and my mother’s lonely life of no stimulation.
I consider all of you responsible and accountable for this horrible end to a long and productive life, and as well to all of the other elders who have been locked away like criminals since this began.
It is interesting to me that we don’t have a seasonal flu outbreak this year. Why not? Because COVID is nothing more than a seasonal flu and a flimsy excuse to treat our elders in this way. Because the PCR test was never designed to test for anything. It was invented to recreate strands of RNA, nothing more. Because destroying the small businesses in this province is another way to demoralize people and break them with debt. Because this isn’t a pandemic at all. It’s a scamdemic.
My parents were taxpayers in this province all of their lives and contributed much to society and their communities, as most of the victims of this cruel treatment were. It is despicable the way this has been handled. Welcome to fascism.
Debra Nehring.
Sent from my lily pad while leaping and hopping on a Moonshadow!
What’s new at the Okanagan Gleaners?
The Okanagan Gleaners, based in Oliver, BC are still doing well even with Covid restrictions. The Gleaners exists to transform produce that might otherwise be wasted into nourishment for the millions of the worlds hungry. We are grateful to our distribution partners who shipped over 12 million servings of soup mix in the year 2020. This would not have been possible without the partnership of our producers who donated over 2 million pounds of product to be dried, and our many volunteers who come to process vegetables and fruit.
Okanagan Gleaners is 100% donor and volunteer driven. Funds donated are used to operate our facility and allows us to continue our mandate to feed hungry people around the world.
For more information, check out our new website: www.okanagangleaners.com and join our Facebook group: Okanagan Gleaners.
With the projected increase in global poverty levels because of the pandemic, nutritional soup mixes produced by the Gleaners will be needed more than ever.
Thank you for your support.
Val Fenn, Promotions Chair.
The Steele report
How does lewd drunkenness, nudity, violence against women and Christian martyrdom equal the origins of a special day set aside for a very different celebration? Well it does prove that civilization changes things over time. And yes I am referring to St Valentines Day or more commonly known as Valentines Day.
The designation for the name of the day of love had it beginning when the Emperor Claudius had a man named Valentine executed for refusing to denounce Christianity.
In the fifth century Pope Gelasius I elevated Valentine to Sainthood and declared him a martyr for the faith. Up until the Pope invoked a serious set of changes, the day of love was quite different. There was a February pagan festival that occupied the space reserved for today’s Valentines Day.
It was the festival of Lupercalia. It was strange to say the least. For most, we can appreciate that the knowledge of science has debunked the reason for the celebration.
This was truly a drunken pagan spectacle. Men sacrificed goats and dogs and tore their hides into strips. In their lewd enthusiasm they struck young women with the hides to make them fertile. While this was going on the men were naked or in some cases partly naked.
Even more outrageous the women lined up for this treatment. Just prior to the beatings men drew names out of a jar and beat the woman who’s name they chose. If that isn’t strange enough the couples remained together until the festival ended and in many cases they remained together forever. You can see why the Pope might think this practice had to end.
So in the fifth century the Pope enacted St. Valentines Day to change the holiday into something more respectable than naked people beating each other with dog and goat skins.
Change was slow to convert the masses. For the first few years the drunkenness, the sacrificing of goats and dogs and beating women continued. The one marked change was that people wore cloths. Just imagine in February running around naked and drunk beating women with goat or dog skins. It took to the middle ages for Valentines Day to become a romantic gesture.
The writings of Shakespeare and Chaucer changed the tone. Those expressing love for each other gave up the dog and goat skin beatings for hand make decorative cards to express their feelings. In 1913 the Hallmark Card Co. began mass producing Valentine Cards.
Somehow chocolates, jewelry and Valentine Cards are a lot better than a drunken festival beating each other with goat hides. Of course anything would be better than that. Now you know how the day evolved Happy Valentines Day.
Fred Steele
To be discussed
Oliver Parks and Recreation
Meeting on Tuesday – see comment section
. Arena to close early this year – Based on strict orders from Provincial Health Office – Oliver’s arena will cease operations for this season February 28th
. Lighting in Parks – demand for more, demand for shorter hours of illumination. A fair amount of concern and communication from citizens that the community park could have more lighting and that the time for illumination should not be all night. Staff are recommending a timer that activates the lights at dusk and all will turn off at 10pm